In
Short: Even Hollywood's biggest names can't
save this "Beauty Shop," filled with
over-the-top characters and a clichéd
plot.

Bad
Hair Day"Beauty
Shop" Not Ready for BusinessBy
Cherie Saunders

The
producers of “Barbershop” and “Barbershop
2” have now opened for business “Beauty Shop,”
starring Queen Latifah as a hair stylist who risks it
all to own her own salon. Fed up with the cold of Chicago,
Gina Norris (Latifah) moves to Atlanta to start fresh
in a posh salon with high-end clientele, where she soon
clashes with the egotistical owner Jorge (Kevin Bacon)
over his disrespect for shampoo girl Lynn (Alicia Silverstone).

Gina
quits to open her own beauty shop in Atlanta’s urban
southwest area known as “the SWATs.” She’s
only able to afford a rundown fixer-upper, but soon, business
is thriving. The shop’s stylists (Golden Brooks,
Sherri Shephard, Alfre Woodard)—holdovers from the
previous owner—begin to adjust to Gina’s warm
but no-nonsense way of running things. Soon, Lynn also
leaves Jorge’s and fulfills her lifelong dream as
she joins Gina’s salon as a stylist. Meanwhile,
an attraction builds between Gina and Joe the electrician
(Djimon Hounsou), who lives in the apartment above the
salon.

There’s
a lot going on in “Beauty Shop”—so much
that writers Kate Lanier and Norman Vance, Jr. forgot
to give us a real plot. A flimsy source of drama comes
from constant petty fines from a health inspector, and
the constant looming of Jorge, which Bacon plays with
over-the-top flamboyancy. Andie MacDowell and Mena Suvari
add little as stereotypical, fish-out-of-water clients
who follow Gina from Jorge’s to her new, urban-flavored
salon. A plot regarding Gina’s homemade hair conditioner
is squeezed in for drama at the end, but provides very
little. With so many disappointing clichés, it’ll
be a miracle if this “Beauty Shop” does any
business.